The Shadow Empire: The Approaching Storm
by InheritanceConfessor2011
Summary: After successfully destroying the Collector base, but no longer wishing to work with Cerberus, nor trusting them with the technology they could gain from his efforts, Sheppard turns to a trusted friend, to support him in his self appointed to prepare galactic society for the upcoming war... Rated M
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer... **I do not own mass effect, or any of its products.

**Author Note: **I wanted to write a mass effect fiction for some time, but just haven't got around to it...this will be a muti-ship story. I also think Mass effect 3 was a disappointment after M2 was so amazing, at least the downloadable content is ok... and want to write my own ending to this amazing story.

**Rated: M**

**The Shadow Empire: The Approaching Storm**

**Chapter 1**

**Posted: 10****th**** March 2013**

"We need to move quickly Liara and retrieve as much as possible from the Collector base, before Cerberus can," he stated factually, as he continued to pace around the table, as his mind kept jumping back to the fight against the human form reaper he had faced days earlier. "Last thing we want is Illusive Man getting hold of that technology," he said passionately. "It will give Cerberus to great of a technology advantage, we can't allow that."

"Don't worry my friend, I already have plans in motion encased such events occurred," as her small hand rest on his shoulder comforting him. "I already have several agents amongst the assigned recovery teams, and strike team ready to go."

At her answer all his tension disappeared, like a great cloud of doubt had been lift from his shoulders, "Good," as he quickly pulled her into embrace, his arms wrapping around her smaller form, "I trust you far more with that technology than Illusive Man any day, I would trust you with my life," knowing the words were true.

"I know," she answered softly, as her arms wrapped around his neck, her eyes locking with his. "I've missed you."

"I know," kissing her on her lips, as familiar charge of energy flowed through him.

The kissed lasted several minutes before Liara pulled away, her eyes still holding his own, "What about Miranda?" asking about the ex-Cerberus CO.

Stroking her lovely face, "Combat fuck," he answered truthfully, as one of her beautiful eyebrow rise questionably, demanding an further explanation, "We were going into one way mission, both stressed, both worried, and that need to be relieved," holding her firmly, "It was a simple way to coop with the stress."

"Was I a combat fuck?" she asked quietly, pulling away from his hand, looking over at the storm clouds dancing between night and day, as the ship followed the storm around the planet.

"Yes, you were," he answered back truthfully, as she tried to pull away, tears rapidly forming, "I won't lie to you about that, but you became more..." gently pulling her to face him. "It's one of my flaws, I'm not proud of it," holding her firmly in his arms, "She was a simple pleasure, you were far more, you were a lover."

"Where do we stand Sheppard?" she whispered, as a small tear danced its way down her cheek.

"Where do you want us to stand?" he asked softly, whilst his hand cupped her cheek, wiping the tear away softly with his thumb.

"I don't know," the information broker answered timidly, almost school girl like.

Pulling her onto the nearby couch, and gently guiding her light famine frame on to his lap, as her eyes continue to hold his own, "Liara," he said softly, his thumb rubbing her cheek with genuine affection, "We both know what's out there, we know a fight is coming for our very survival, and we both know the odds don't favour us," as he put his thumb on her soft lips, stopping the response on her lips.

"We could both be dead within next couple of years, we both are high ranking targets by both governments, and the Reapers, myself due to my success against them and the actions I've taken. And you due to your status as the Shadow Broker, the biggest information dealer out there," as Liara just nodded in agreement, accepting the point.

"Let's just live in the moment," he suggested, pulling her into another kiss, as Liara shift on his lap, returning his kiss with passion, as his hand rejoin his other resting on her firm ass. "Let's not regret our time together, we don't have time to doubt ourselves, let's just enjoy the pleasure we can gain from each other company."

"Your right," she admitted with a soft smile of her own, even as looking down into his eyes with real affection, "I've been acting like a silly spoiled child," before kissing him again on his lips.

"You know," he started, whilst his hands massage her lower back through her full red dress, "There is a term for this, amongst humans."

"What is it?" she enquired with interest, the scholar in her shinning through.

"Friends with benefits," he answered back easily, before kissing her forcefully again, as his right hand moved to top of her dress, easily finding the zip to her outfit. "Were friends, we been through combat together, we both find each other attractive, both physically and mentally. But we both have demanding positions requiring our time, and if knowledge leaked of our relationship, our enemies would come either of us, just to hurt the other, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes," she answered with a firm nod of her head.

"So let's work with this," as he rubbed her sides, before kissing her again, as she took her arms out of her red flowing dress, revealing a white bra vest, much like alliance military ones.

"Shadow Broker, Agent Fox's report has just arrived," the annoying VI reported, as he mentally groaned as Liara broke their kiss to answer the VI.

"Process it, I'll view it later," she instructed firmly in her Shadow Broker persona, her own annoyance coming through at the interruption, as she got off his lap. "I don't want to be disturbed for next hour, unless its Alpha level transmission, or above," whilst her full body dress fell to the floor, revealing a matching set of underwear, firmly hugging her prefect ass, as she discarded her equally simple heels with quick flick, before turning back to face him. "Sorry about that," clearly embarrasses about the interruption as she stood there for his inspection, waiting for him to act.

His experience eyes ran over her enchanting sapphire blue body, examining her well-toned legs, nice rounded hips, flowing into a perfect round butt, with a equally killer waistline, and perfect set of breasts, before finally looking into her enchanting eyes.

He suddenly realized he was properly her first love, her first embrace, only embraced, despite her age; he would always be special to her. He was her white knight from the moment he had rescued her from the ruins, even if he considered him more like a black knight. He had been her rock when her mother died, he had held her, comforted her, reinsured her and he had supported her, she had grown under his guardianship, under his leadership into the young women she was today.

"Your beautiful you know that," he stated with simple sincerity as he throw his own top to one side, before pulling her back into embrace and planting a forceful kiss on her lips, as his tongue explored her mouth again, with new energy and purpose.

Breaking their kiss, sexual desire pumping through his body, as one of her hands rested on his chest. "You know, you are going to be encage for the rest of evening, right?" he stated simply, already planning to make this night as pleasurable as possible for the inexperience Asari, she was owned that much.

"Am I?" she enquired, primal energy and excitement clearly visible to his experience eye.

"Yes," he stated with no hint of doubt, as his started to lay kisses on her sensitive neck, "Because I plan to fuck you for the rest of evening," as he pick her up, her legs quickly and eagerly wrapping around his waist, as he carried her to her private quarters away from her consoles.

**Normandy**

"Edi, put me on the ship wide speaker..." he instructed the free AI.

"Yes Sheppard," the ship AI responded, "You are on ship wide speaker.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as you know I have broken away with Cerberus, and those of you who remain have chosen to stay with me rather than return to their employment. I have spoken with the Shadow Broker, who has generously agreed to provide everyone with new identities as personal favour to myself, if you wish to make a new start, but don't wish to follow my command," he explained, as remaining command desk grew listen.

"This ship will be in combat, we will face dangers from all sides of law, so I give you next 48 hours to decide where you stand," as he looked at the grew around the CIC, examining their faces.

"I won't lie to you, I plan to be working with the Shadow Broker foreseeable future, and this may result in us coming into conflict with Cerberus, or working with non human parties. My working with Cerberus as alienates many parties, many governments, but I don't regret this, it was necessary to save lives and destroy a threat to our very survival when government failed to act. We are at war, whether we like it or not. You all know this, you all have seen the horrors of the Collector based," as he yet the mental image settle, as his eyes rested on Kelly.

Kelly had already admitted to her own nightmares to him in private soon after returning to Normandy, and that the crew were having similar nightmares that she was trying to help them handle, as her role as unofficial counsellor to the ship.

"I don't know what the future beholds. If you want to leave, talk to me directly or tell Edi, I won't judge you if you want to get out now I won't ask anymore of you. It's only fair you will want to see your families, love ones. If you stay with me, you may lose that chance. I won't judge you if you wish to call it a day, that is all," as he nodded to the AI interface to close the ship com.

"I'm with you Commander," Joker stated firmly, "I want to see this through to end, for Kaidan, for Jerkins, for the Fallen."

"Thanks Joker, I wouldn't want any other pilot," giving him a reinsuring light pat on the shoulder, already knowing Joker would come through for him just like he had done many times before.

"Don't get all sentimental on me Cap, I think I might cry," the helmsmen joked, wiping a fake tear away, causing him to roll his eyes at the man's behaviour.

Walking through the crowd in the CIC, as he headed to the evaluator, nodding to the remaining crew, "I'm with you Commander," Kelly stated with almost religious conviction, catching him off balance as she gave him a hug. "You came for us, Cerberus would never have done that, they would have just wrote us off as expandable casualties, as numbers, but you didn't. Even now you are looking out for us," she explained with certainly. "I'll be there with you until the end, whatever you need me to do, I'm yours, just say it," passion and conviction radiating off her.

Pulling out of the hug, "Thanks Kelly, it's good to have you back," he answer truthfully, since he had genuinely missed her, but deciding not mention it had been the perfect time to strike, catching their enemy off guard with their own sudden counter attack, after having survived the Collectors own devastating assault on the Normandy. And that he had effectively written them off as dead, and it was only by pure chance they had been saved, and spare such a gruesome end to fight another day.

Feeling his sprits rise as more and more of the crew express a similar desire and belief in him to guide them to victory in the days ahead, as he made his way to main gun battery, looking for Garrus, as he thought more about the grew.

They saw him as a white knight, a hero, a guardian, not a ruthless calculating leader who was solely focus on victory.

In many ways he was much like Illusive Man, they were both ruthless, calculating leader, that understood too well the need to make sacrifices to win wars, but unfortunately they both had different objectives.

He wanted to united the galaxy; under a single banner, harden them for the upcoming conflict, whilst the Illusive Man was solely interested in humanity, and didn't care if he alienated other races whilst doing so. This unfortunately conflicted with his own objective of uniting the galaxy to face the Reapers. In many ways, Illusive Man had easier task of the two, only having to worry about their own species, but he still felt that their best chance for long term survival was to work together, rather than as individual species.

It was also why he made the cold calculated choice to leave the Collector base intact, for most part, even with the knowledge that hundreds of thousands of individuals had died there, and had been harvested to make a human form Reaper. The technology they could gain from the intact base could be critical factor in ensuring the future survival of not only humanity, but all the races. And frankly it seemed like a bloody waste of lives to just blow it up, after so many had died, and at least this way their deaths had some purpose, as the words of his first commanding officer came back. 'There are lives spent, and lives wasted, it's our duty to see that our soldiers' lives are spent and not wasted.'

The only problem with that was only Cerberus could access it at this time, at this moment, and He just didn't think one race, one organisation hording it would be best use for it. Hence his upcoming operation he was planning with Liara to retrieve the technology for themselves, rather leave it the hands of Cerberus and Illusive man. And with her vast network of contacts spread across the galaxy, they could rapidly spread the technology to each sociality, he concluded as the bulkhead doors open to main battery.

"Garrus," he said in greeting to former C sec Officer.

"Sheppard."

"I trust you going to be staying around?" he asked the Turian.

"Of course, someone needs to watch your back, and how could I go back to boring desk job after this?"

"Good."

"How was Liara?" the Turian grinned, clearly knowing what he had been up to the previous evening.

"She doing well, far more relax now," he answered with his own boyish grin that any male could decode, no matter their species, "And I doubt she be sending Asari Commandos after some poor guy anytime soon."

"Is there anything you wanted? I doubt you are here for a boys chat."

Getting straight down to business, the ship needed a Xo, and Garrus was best suited for the position, "With Miranda gone, you are now my second in command, that's if you want the job."

"Sheppard, I don't think I'm the best choice," he began to protest.

"Garrus, you're the best choice I have, do you think Grunt is suitable? Yes he is a juggernaut in battle, but he's untested in leadership, his discussions are controlled too much by raw emotions, rather than cold logic need of a commander. Zaeed? We don't even know if he's even staying with us still," stalling any arguments. "I need you to help me lead, to help provided some stability for the crew," pressing his point.

"I understand," his Turian training and discipline kicking in an instant. "You could always use Edi..." he suggested with a grin.

"Yes, Edi is more than capable, but leadership needs a personal touch, and the crew would be more responsive to you, rather than her, I'm sure you understand Edi," since he knew the AI was listening.

"I understand, but thank you for considering me," the AI answered back, confirming she was listening, as her blue orb interface disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

Turning his attention back to Garrus, "I expect I'll need you in days ahead of us," feeling more reinsured that he had a second in commanded now he could count upon, "You have been part of this from the start, you have been key part in our success. I expect you will play key part in our future success as well."

"But only due to your leadership, you gave me a chance to grow, to step up to plate, as you humans would say," The Turian officer stated, "Rather than leaving me on the citadel..."

"And here is another chance to step up," he answered, "Normandy alone will not win the upcoming war. Someday, you will have to move out of my command fully, out of my shadow, you will have your own ship and grew again... You held it together at the Collector base; you held the line, as I pushed forward. You can do this."

"If you say so Sheppard," the Turian stated, clearly uncertain of his own abilities to lead men and women into combat.

"I have faith in you Garrus, I wouldn't have chosen you as my second if I didn't," as he moved to leave the battery... "The Broker is making arrangements for the Normandy to be taken to a space dock for necessary repairs, and any hardware upgrades, plus to do a final swipe for any bugs we may have missed. I plan to leave you in charge with the remaining grew to help supervise the refit. I'll be heading off on a little mission."

"Alright Sheppard, its shame Mordin not here, he would have love the chance to dabble with some new toys," bring back fond memories of their former crew mate.

"Yea, with him, Tali and Legion gone, we're awfully low on tech abilities," he admitted, somewhat annoyed at losing such skilled tech operatives, "But he was right, he can use his influence and connections to spread the word behind the scenes and bypass all this political crap. If he can get the Salarians to open there eyes to the danger, it will be worth it. And maybe that will get the rest of council races to play ball, and start acting."

"We will see him again," Garrus stated with certainly. "He knows the danger, and he's a man of actions."

**1 week later.**

Stepping out of the unmarked shuttle onto the deck of the former Asari destroyer currently named the Dancer, now in the employment of Liara, as his eyes quickly scanned the Asari cargo bay, and finding it just as pleasing to the eye as everything else of Asari design, how the wall flowed like running water. It was simply elegant, just like the Asari themselves; it was one of many reasons why he loved their culture.

Out of the corridor of his eye, he caught movement, as two figures moved to meet him, both carrying assault weapons, but it was clear they were on safely, the first one was clearly Asari even with her combat equipment on masking her features, her species natural grace shining through, the other was Turian.

"Operative Nex," the lead figure greeted, "We have been told to expect your arrival and to take you to the captain upon your arrival. However there is matter of clearance."

"Of course," he answered, "Here is my security clearance," activating the highly customize Omi-Tool, allowing the guard's own tool to examine it.

The Omi-Tool itself was only use by high ranking operatives in services of the Shadow Broker, the simple fact he had one meant he answer to broker directly, rather than another operative in the chain of command. In reality, he was effectively second in command, maybe even in command, since Liara naturally still deferred to him. The Omi-Tool was design with high security in mind, link to both DNA records, and updating security codes, and biological scans... Any attempts to hack the tool itself, or be used by another individual would result in the tool activating its internal safe guards, triggering instant data wipe, as well electrical charge frying its internal circuits.

Both tools flashed green, confirming the security codes were correct and his clearance level. "This way sir," the Asari stated, taking point, as he followed her led.

It odd working with a code name, but it was necessary, to help keep a low profile, and to ensure any actions he took could not be tracked back to the Normandy. He was duty bound to protect his crew as their captain, and he did not want to test their loyalties just yet by pitting them against their former employers. The same went for the armour he normally used; it was far to specialized, and could be easily traced back to him. Hence he had to work with a more common mass market brand...

However if it had been extensively customised by the Shadow Broker engineers, increasing the armour performance to point it match his normal upgraded N7 gear.

Following the pair through the passage ways, whilst admiring the design, before he finally arrived on the bridge, which was equally grew by several species, but none of them were human, not that he was surprised given the nature of the operation. Both he and Liara knew that the Illusive Man had operatives in her operations, just as she had operatives and informers in Cerberus, willing to pass information to her in their game of shadows.

He also knew, this operation would compromise several of her operatives, who would need to be relocated, but it was necessary price to pay in grand scheme of things... Cerberus just couldn't have exclusive access to the technology found at the Base.

"Operative Nex," the commander greeted, his armour giving away that he was Turian, as he moved to shake his hand, "The Shadow Broker has spoken very highly of your abilities."

"Thank you Operative Red," grasping the man in Turian handshake, commonly shared amongst soldiers, "Have you been fully informed of our mission?"

"In part," he admitted, "The Broker instructed me to follow your orders, and you would inform me of the mission details"

"Indeed," as he activating his tool, as the other operative did the same, sending the second set of clearance codes to the captain own, taking the guards by surprise at the second set of clearance codes. "This information is highly sensitive, and only should be shared on a need to know basis," he offered in explanation, as his tool did another set of security checks, before both tools flash green.

"Then we should discuses this in private," Operative Red suggested, now security protocols had been taken care of.

"Naturally" he agreed, following the commander into the small conference room, clearly design to support to small scale discussions.

Soon as the door were shut and sealed, he placed a small disk like device on the desk, which flashed blue several times, checking the room for activate listing devises before it flashed green. "My orders are to defer to your command, and you would inform me of our mission objective," Operative Red stated, but clearly unhappy about it.

"I am sorry about that, I know cloak and draggers can be tiresome, especially when it's your crew on the line," he offered, whilst the Turian officer just nodded.

"I'll get straight down to the point, Commander Sheppard recently lead a strike mission against a Collector based belong Omega-Four Relay," he began, finding it rather amusing he was talking about himself in third person.

"The Commander and his squad were successful in their mission, and destroyed the Collector Base, and their vessel. From what we have been able to intercept from our operatives, the strike team was able to retrieve data from their systems, and it suggests the Collectors were descendents of the Protheans," throwing Operative Red for the loop at such a massive discovery, whilst remembering Liara own excitement when he had told her of their discovery.

"Naturally, the Broker wants this information confirmed, and if possible expanded upon," playing the information angle, like Liara suggested, after all he had a role to play.

"Naturally," Red agreed, nodding his armoured head in agreement.

"Now I'm sure you understand why we're keeping this quiet," getting another nod in agreement from the Turian operative.

"Besides the social and cultural affect this can have on sociality, their also the technology benefits. With the destruction of their base, there is a chance to savage their advance technology for ourselves. The Broker is currently working on getting the codes to allow us to safely use the Omega-Four Relay for ourselves," he explained, using a half truth.

"However the pro-human organisation known as Cerberus, which Sheppard was working with at the time, already as the codes, and is already undertaking savage operations trying to recover their technology for themselves. Naturally the last thing we want is an organisation such as Cerberus gaining technology advantage and possibly using it against us, and the great inter-galactic community in the future. Nor do we want the System Alliance gaining sore procession, though their links with Cerberus, which could easily destabilize current balance of power, possibly triggering a war in future."

"Of course," the Turian agreed, "The Citadel Fleets are still recovering from the Geth attack on the Citadel, and the lost of the Destiny Ascension in the attack. I still don't know why System alliance didn't intervene, to save them."

Ignoring the comment, since it had been his own cold calculating order what had sent the previous council to their deaths. "Our orders are to intercept one of these shipments from Cerberus..." he stated.

"The Broker knows Cerberus as it own agents in our organisation, and we don't want this knowledge leaking, so far only 3 people know of this mission, and two of them are currently in this room," making sure the Turian operative understood the danger, and need to keep his mouth shut, otherwise Liara may just be sending a team of Asari commando after the guy. "War is bad for business... the Broker wants stability for the time being. Not to mention this technology could be extremely profitable if handle by the right party."

"I understand, but how can I trust you, your human, surly you would want your own species to advance?" the Turian asked, his bias shining through.

Playing it cool, rather than listing half a dozen reason why, he went for the most simple, and most powerful reason, "The Shadow Broker does, and I wouldn't be handing it otherwise," he answered back, making sure Turian understood.

"Of course."

"Now, can you show me to my quarters, I've been stuck on a shuttle for last 48 hours, and I like to freshen up," he instructed, wanting to get out of his armour, and have a proper shower.

**End of Chapter**

**Author Note:** This is my first Mass Effect fan fiction, I don't know how much I plan to develop it, I just wanted to write something sci-fi for chance, and so I can develop my own writing skills... Yes I know I have grammar issues, so if anyone wants to be a **beta** please message me...

However if it get good amount of feedback, and it looks like there is an active audience I'll properly continue it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer... **I do not own mass effect, or any of its products.

**Rated: M**

**The Shadow Empire: The Approaching Storm**

**Chapter 2: **

**Posted 30th April 2013**

Silently watching as the unmarked Cerberus vessel slipped across the darkness of space, crossing the empty 'Gortys' star system at a casual pace to its distant distraction, totally blind to the upcoming attack as the graceful _Dancer_ moved into position behind the former Alliance Cruiser. If this was a straight up firefight, the large Cruiser would easily best the lone Asari destroyer with its raw fire power, and defensive barriers, let alone mention the upgrades Cerberus had properly installed on the vessel since taking procession of it from the Alliance command.

But thankfully that wasn't the case today; Liara's hidden operatives had successfully been able to plant hidden shutdown codes within the ship's key systems, just waiting to be activated for such an attack, which he was willing to admit made a nice change for once.

He knew from his own experiences that such hidden codes could be devastating; after all, his own Normandy had fallen prey to such methods, even with Edi managing their cyber warfare defence systems. Not that he held the AI responsible, since the cyber attacks had been based on Reaper design, and they were ancient sentinel machines.

Then there was the matter of the crew, normally this class of Cruiser with its aged design, would be manned by a crew of closer to 300 hundred, and sometimes close to 800 if the vessel was pushed to its life support limits, its hangers and cargo bays converted, and the comfort of grew and passengers was discarded.

Compare to the Dancer which had a rather modest grew of hundred and fifty, with a third of that being assault troops assign for this strike mission. Whilst a traditional ship the size and weight class of the Normandy would normally need a grew of around 80 to run effectively, but due to newest technologies and having an actual AI running the ship systems rather than people, meant they could get by on a even dozen members easily. All they had to do was maintained and swap the physical hardware, whenever the AI noticed an issue, which was rare occurrence unless recovering from battle...

His Normandy was truly the finest vessel in galaxy at this moment; it was a Predator, with the firepower more than capable of gutting this Cruiser, which was easily 5 times its mass with its state of art Thanix Cannons. Sadly, she was now in a secret space dock undergoing repair work from the damage she sustained from their battle with Collector Cruiser, whilst the damage appeared to be superficial at first, the internal support structure had to be replaced in areas around the core, and hanger bay, as well some of her armoured plates. It didn't stop her from flying, it was just a weakness what could cost them their lives if left unrepaired someday, and that wasn't something he would allow on his ship.

After all, one good hit, could dangerously damage the drive core, resulting in the ship exploding into ball of superheated plasma. And frankly, he had already lost one ship and most of her crew, he wasn't about to lose a second. This operation would have be so easily if he could use her, and his remaining squad, but that wasn't the case, he had to work with the resources he had.

The Intel showed that the ship was manned by a skeleton crew of 50, with security being covered by combat mechs rather than actual Cerberus combat troops, which would have been a far more formal task to eliminate. Naturally, this was Cerberus, he already knew these wouldn't be the standard security mechs they be dealing with, but superior combat models design for actually combat duties...hence the squads was armed close quarters weapons, a mixture of shotguns, assault rifles, submachine guns with mixture of armour piecing rounds, and disruption rounds for upcoming task. Not that he could blame the Illusive Man, the ship was transporting Reaper parts in its massive hungers, and the head of Cerberus properly concluded it was safer to use easily replaceable mechs, rather than risk his personnel being exposed to the reaper technology and run the risk of indoctrination.

However it did make him wonder why the ship didn't have any escorts, when it was transporting such valuable and dangerous technology.

"Something wrong?" Operative Red enquired, clearly picking up his unease, even without being able to see commander face, by god he hated wearing face masks.

Not turning his attention away from the galaxy map, or the two dots on the screen. "It feels too easy," he stated quietly, listening to well homed gut, before his eyes darted back to the tactical screens, "The cargo she carrying I would expect Cerberus to _at least_ assign one escort to her," his quiet words catching the crew ears.

"I'll take your word for it," Red stated, as he too watched the screens, the Turian officer moving around the consoles.

"Do another scan of the system," he instructed, as the crew check their screens again, knowing full well Cerberus had access to most advance stealth technology.

"Nothing Sir," the female Turian senor officer stated after several minutes of intense concentration.

"Set condition 3," he instructed to Operative Red who started barking off orders to command crew. "You have command of the bridge," transferring command back to the Turian officer, as he moved to leave and join the assault teams.

"You're not going to stay here, and supervise the assault from here?" Red enquired.

"No," he stated coldly as he focus on his task ahead, the thrill of upcoming encage shinning through. "I led from the front, if something goes wrong, I'll be there to _fix_ it," he stated, confidence with his ability and privately hating sitting on the sidelines as a observer. "I'll be with Alpha team," as he left the bridge, making his way down to the shuttle bay.

They would have felt more secure if they knew who he was, that he was former N7, highly skilled combat operative and a Spectre, but that didn't matter, the command crew knew their job. He had gone with a modified M-12 Locust submachine gun, a M -11 Wraith shotgun, with a standard M-5 Grenade Launcher equipped with high explosive rounds, he just had to be careful not to breach the hull. His aim was pure firepower, to just overwhelm the mechs defences before their numbers could overwhelm him and his squad. After all, if their Intel was correct, there were close to 300 hundred of them on the ship.

Not that he could find fault with Illusive Man discussion, the simple size of the ship would have discourage most attackers, and it was clearly alliance military design, despite it having no official markings. "Alpha Team your with me," he instructed as he arrived in launch bay, moving towards the group his helm display at marked as Alpha, finding the group to be even balance between Asari, Turian, and Salarians.

"Sir," the Turian officer greeted, clearly excited at the idea of combat, giving him the impression his was green.

"Stand down," he said firmly, "I don't care much for rank, just results," he explained, "Check your gear, we will be disembarking soon," as he checked his weapons and gear again with practise ease, as the rest of squad followed his example.

Resisting the urge to shake his head in disapproval, his experience eye noticing mistakes as Alpha checked their equipment. 'Hopefully these guys know what they're doing,' finding their behaviour concerning, before activating the Com, "Operative Red, set condition two throughout the ship, 5 minutes to launch," as the ship com relayed the order as he step onto the shuttle, to see the armoured Turian pilot doing his own last minutes checks of the shuttle, as the rest of 8 member team bordered behind him, and scrapping themselves into their seats.

Pressing the button on side console next too door, as the shuttle door closed and pressurised itself, as the distinctive rumble of the thrusters powered up. Looking out the side door, to see the cargo bay was emptying quickly of personnel, as the desk crew moved away from shuttles preparing to launch.

"Begin operation," Operative Red stated over the inter com, "Shuttles 1 to 3 you are clear to disembark, good hunting people," the ship commander barked as the shuttles left the hanger bay doors. Stepping up behind the pilot, and silently watching us near the Cerberus Cruiser, wondering what would happen next. It had been too easy so far, everything was going _too _well... "Maybe I'm just getting use to suicide mission," he muttered with small smile. Turning his attention back to the monitors as his combat experience eyes easily picked out the necessary information from the screens, as he watched the flashing yellow triangle distinction marker on the cockpit screen, numbers rapidly changing beneath it showing their distance and estimated time to intercept.

"Make sure you put us down softly on her hull," he stated to the pilot who just nodded.

"Seal all suits, prepare for hard docking," he stated to the squad, as he seal the door to cockpit, and started checking his suit and weapons again.

"Eta, 30 seconds," the pilot reported over the suit intercom, as he ready his shotgun for upcoming fight, the armour piecing rounds easily entering the magazine as there was a soft bump as the shuttle handed gracefully on the outer hull.

No sooner than the pilot gave the green light, years of home instincts kick into action, as my free hand hit the door controls, opening the main match to the void of space, catching the squad off guard as the vacuum sucked the remaining air out of the compartment. But I was already in motion as the magnetic cramps on my boots activated, as I moved across the hull towards the outer air lock controls, my objective marker flashing on my helmets heads up display.

I didn't brother looking at stars, just focusing on the grey hull of the ship. After all, I had already died once, looking at the stars, I didn't need to see them again, and after the number of space walks I've done, stars were stars, wherever you went in space.

Already at the air lock controls, as I saw the last of the squad disembarking from the shuttle, "Come on people," I shouted over intercom, "This is meant to be assault, not a picnic," trying to add some urgently to the squad. This was annoying thing working with new people, a new squad, you never knew what motivated them, what was their pace or fighting style, you never knew who would be where on the battlefield... you just didn't have that connection what was built by combat. Like Grunt, would always be by his side, in heaviest and most dangerous part of the fighting, Garrus would normally hang back, trying to find higher ground to snipe from, taking out squad leaders and relaying back enemy movements, but close enough to move up and support with his assault rifle if needs be. Just like Legion would move up and around, franking, using his machine accuracy and logic, to get into the best tactical position to control the battlefield with his window sniper rifle.

Pushing such thoughts aside, as Omi tool bleep over the suit's com system, instantly opening the airlock with the access codes we had been provided.

"Were in," I stated over the intercom, the shuttle already touching off to collect the second wave of troops from the Dancer, as the first members of the squads jump into the open airlock.

Following the last one through the airlock, as the outer door sealed and the compartment pressured. Soon as the inner door opened the squad moved in, moving up in pairs of twos over lapping each other, moving into whatever cover was available along the narrow hallway, as helmet distinction point updated using the files we had on the ship, marking the bridge, with map, and clearing marked route flashing in yellow.

Moving shifting through the corridors for several minutes, before we encountered the first member of the grew, dressed in the all too familiar yellow, white and black uniform of Cerberus, reminding me of Kelly, except for her being a blonde, rather than a red head, as I opened fire with my Shotgun, feeling the recoiling from the gun against my armoured shoulder, before two assault rifles opened up on her as well, with my own shotgun blast tearing through her chest. She was dead instantly, still holding the same looked of shock on her face, when our deadly rounds tore into her. I took moment to consider the encounter, ejecting the thermal chip in favour for new one, as the squad moved forwarded, swiping the corridors and side rooms, noting the placement of the shots, my own was dead centre of his chest, right where the heart would be, and was the killing shot as her heart imploded, and round sever her spinal code.

Just then alarms started going off around the corridors, and over coms screeching, as the walls lights flashed red, like all alliance ships did. "Move people, double time," taking point, as they rushed down the corridors, heading to the bridge. "This Nex, the enemy is aware of our presence over," he reported back to the Dancer

"Noted, enacting attack plan, hitting their coms and weapons, second wave is on route, eta 3 minutes, over," Operative Red stated over their coms.

"Acknowledged," he rallied back to Dancer, just as patrol of eight Loki mark III security mechs rounded corner causing him to instantly open fire with two bursts of the wraith, before ducking into cover of a door way as the thermal chip was rejected, as team opened up with their own weapons.

Slamming another thermal clip into the shotgun, before opening fire again at the nearest mech, the armour piecing rounds tearing through its damage armour with ease, dropping it beside its comrade, whilst his second burst ripped parted into the side of his next target, blowing its left arm off from the shoulder joint, disarming it, as it continue to advance at them, as he ducked back into cover.

Reloading with practise ease, as he watch his team duck in and out of cover, shooting off quick bursts of their weapons, before opening fire again at the closest target.

"Reinforcements," Salarian announce over their coms.

Popping out of cover just long enough to see another eight mechs joined the remaining 3, as he fired into the advancing horde of metal.

'This is taking too long, knowing the plan was already falling apart if he didn't act quickly,' as he primed a pair of frag grenades, and rolling them into the advancing pack, as his shields resister some hits. Twin bangs rocked the corridor, they explosive energy rippling through the hull plates, the waves of energy running up his legs as he opened fire on the ones still showing signs of life, as a biotic shockwave ripped through the still active mechs. "Move people..." he shouted as he reloaded, his heart pumping.

Next couple minutes past in series of running gun battles as they made their way to bridge, fighting their way through groups of mechs.

"This is Beta and Gamma team, we've taken engineering," Asari squad commander announced over inter coms, "Currently locking down primary core systems, minimal causalities."

"Acknowledged, Good job Beta and Gamma team," feeling better at least one objective had been completed as planned, as he fired on a trio of mechs, which quickly fell to their overwhelming advantage of firepower. "Lock the area down, reinforcements should be inbound soon," as he opened fire, just as other head automatic turret lowered from the ceiling, its twin barrels warming up before unleashing a barrage of rounds down the corridor, forcing him back into cover of a door way.

'That wasn't on the ship schematic..' thinking back to the plans of the ship whilst moving into cover, rounds bouncing off the way he was shuttering behind, as his team rounds bounced harmlessly off turrets shielding as he holster his shotgun and readying his grenade launcher, as he watched his Turian squad mate get forced back into cover.

"Hack it shielding," he ordered over the team's coms, waiting for turrets shields to go offline.

"Eta, 5 minutes until the core is offline," Asari squad commander updated, as rounds flew up and down the corridor.

Looking over at the Salarian engineer who was furiously tapping away commands into his omi tool, as he saw the outline of mechs advancing up under the cover of the turret. 'I'll handle it myself,' as he unleashed a barrage of explosive grenades at the turret and the mechs beneath it, tearing through the turret shields, and the mechs armour plating, as his team fire their own rounds into mix.

Advancing down the devastated corridor, the walls charred and burnt as he step over the twisted deformed metal of the desk, his armour boots crushing down on faceplate of active mechs head as he rejected the empty shells, as he instinctively reloaded the grenade launcher, his eyes never leaving the corridor as he advance down the corridor to the bridge, not even waiting for the team.

Smiling as his body ran through the motions, 'This brings back memories,' as he fired duo of grenades into another wave of mechs, his mind flashing back to his N7 training, as he tore into the Cerberus security mechs as he continued his deadly advance to the bridge, 'At least it's not husks,' mentally shaking his head at animate corpses, or abominations.

"Behind us!" His Asari squad mate suddenly shouted, as he dropped and span around, as series of rounds went over his head, as biotic wave of energy rippled into the first wave of mechs, twisting up the mental hull plates, as he fired his own grenades passed his squad...' they must think I'm nuts using grenade launcher at such close ranges... they should really be grateful I don't have my Cain with me, wishing he could see their faces at seeing the massively illegal nuclear weapon.' As he watched the mechs get torn apart.

"You two," gesturing to Turian and Asari, "Your rearguard," as he activated the coms, "Take point," gesturing to the eager Turian he had meet in hanger bay who quickly jumped into action.

Following in middle of pack as he reloaded his weapon, "Delta Team status report?" wondering where their support was, since Delta Team mission had been to support Alpha team's assault on the bridge, and be their rear guard.

Several seconds passed before he got a reply "We're pinned down," as rounds of heavy gunfight echoed over the coms "Encountering heavy resistance, we're being pushed back to air lock, over," the Turian commander answered surprisingly calmly.

"Acknowledge," already deciding he had really no choice but to push forward, as the ship power went out, pitching the halls into darkness before the backup lights activated, lighting the halls up with dim light, reminding him of Normandy V1 destruction, as light appeared along the floor.

"Primary power core offline," Asari squad commander announced, "Engines are now offline, primary weapon systems offline, shields are done."

"Good job, see if you can't deactivate the security mechs over," as he walked under a power down security turrets, only stopping long enough to tear out a cluster of wires from the Turrets core. "Is Echo team with you?"

"Confirmed, Echo team is here, helping to secure engineering," Another Turian voice added over the coms.

"Good, lock it down," disconnecting the coms, as his Nav marked flashed at bridge doors, noticing the trio of powered now heavy turrets hanging dangerously from the ceiling as the team engineers started hacking the door controls. Thankfully the rest of the squad moved into position, covering the two corridors leading to the bridge. "Fox Team Status?" he requested.

"Secured secondary hanger bay, but heavy mechs in primary bay encountered over, 1 causality," Salarian operative replied quickly, "Lack the firepower necessary to neutralize targets. Objective unobtainable with current resources, request support, over."

Mentally nodding, as his tactical mind processed the situation whilst pushing news of lose of a team mate back to his mind. "Acknowledged, Just hold secondary bay and try to lock the controls down, hopefully we will be able to deactivate mechs from bridge, contact Echo Team if needs be, get them to assist," relaying instructions, as he shouldered his grenade launcher in favour of shotgun.

'Beep,' as the door to bridge unlocked, allowing the assault team entrance.

Pressing himself up again the wall, next to the door, before quickly and silently gesturing for Salarian engineer to open the doors just to be rewarded with hail of gunfire erupting from other side, as he instinctively pulled the Salarian away, before opening fire into bridge, finding they had a quad-turret facing the door, the Cerberus gunner grinning as he opened fire at them.

"I _really_ wish I had my Gain," he muttered again to himself as Turian at over side of door fired into room.

"Start hacking their turret," he ordered, before opening fire again, his shields registering hits, before pulling back into cover and swapping back to his trusty grenade launcher... 'I really do love this gun,' before opening fire into the bridge, the half dozen grenades leaving his launcher in quick succession as the Turian flew his own pair of grenades into the mix.

Dropping his launcher, his shotgun at the ready has the last of eight back to back explosion ended, he leaped through the door way into action.

**Shadow Broker Lair**

Liara moved around her office with practise ease as she read over the latest reports, whilst her console flashed again as another of her numerous agents reported in from somewhere in galaxy.

Truthfully, she wished she could borrow Edi from the Normandy, the AI would truly be such a great asset in her line of work as an information broker, instead she had to work with VI's which were helpful, but lacked the creativity and free thought necessary to creativity link pieces of information. However that was going to change soon, with the access to reaper technology she hoped to recreate an A.I like Edi to help manage her vast intelligence network. Plus, it was necessary, Cerberus was already experimenting with A.I's so if she wanted to stay competitive and at her most powerful she would have to get some of her own to counter theirs.

Many people would think it was easy being _the_ Shadow Broker, but they never took into account just how much information she read and process and acted upon to gain advantage in intergalactic market place, or the numerous political reports, or science developments that sat on her desk.

Honestly she spent all her time in her office managing her shadow empire, even when she climbed into bed, she would have a report or data file to read, until her eyes finally gave out, just to repeat the cycle the next day.

Unless Sheppard was around, that man simply didn't give her chance to read the reports, he just flew it out the room before distracting her again in various present and enjoyable ways. Dam she missed him. Entering several commands into her terminal, to see Sheppard was already in action assaulting the Cerberus cruiser, as information poured across her screen.

Hopefully he would be fine, as she mentally reassured herself of John's abilities.

Sighing as her nerves started to get better of her, she rose from her chair, her heels tapping as she salsa her way across the floor of her office into her kitchen. Pouring some blue moon whiskey into empty glass, before downing the three hundred year old whiskey in a flash, before taking the bottle and glass with her desk, something she rarely did, but her nerves were burning with worry. She knew it was illogical to worry about John; the man was fighter, one of the best, a killing machine, _almost_ a human reaper when he got going. But she still couldn't help but worry, has her mind came up with different ways the mission could go wrong.

Closing all the open data files except the data stream coming from the _Dancer_, and moving over to couch by the windows, as she lay back watching the light show going on outside her window, as lighting danced across the sky, trying to relax her but knowing it was pointless until she knew was sure whether John was safe.

She was in love, she suddenly realized as she curled up on the couch, pulling her legs up to her chest, just hoping her John would be safe.

**Cerberus Cruiser **

Rolling through the doorway his shotgun in hand as he rolled in cover behind terminal and opened fire into confused mass of Cerberus desk officers as his squad poured into the room opening fire and unleashing mixture of biotic and technological attacks on the command crew.

Firing another two burst over the console at the nearest target as other shotgun blasts joined his own, as the two force opened up on each other in old fashion turkey shot out, as grenade detonated to his left, the heat wave rolling over him as he once again pop out cover long another to fire another two quick bursts of his gun into side of un-armoured man.

Shaking his head, as he rammed another clip into the magazine before firing again, this time at armoured trooper, who shields took the first blast but failed under the second. Just then grenade rolling up next to, reacting with lighting fast reflexes he flew the grenade back over the top of the console, back into enemy ranks as it detonated in mid air.

'Close one' he noted, as he jumped over cover fired another quick two burst all time rounds flying at him, before ducking behind another work station.

Pressing his back next to work station, as he continued to reload his shotgun, his gun barrel smoking, before noticing his blood stain boot marks showing his advance across the room, before popping out of cover again to fire again.

"We surrender," a panic voice went out.

"Throw your weapons on the ground!" he shouted, as he got up, his shotgun wiping back and forward, "Hand's in the air now," as the squad copied his actions, their own guns swiping the bridge, as the first pair of hands appeared, before being joined by another pair, then another. Gesturing with flick of his helmet for squad member to move up whilst he covered them, his eyes looking for any sign of treachery.

Advancing slowly behind the Salarian, who moved up to quickly take their weapons away.

"Lock down the bridge, you two guard the door," gesturing towards pair of Turians "You! Try to deactivate the mechs if they still active," he ordered the Salarian, noticing that couple of the squad were showing signs of light wounds, as the limped about, their armour showing signs of damage.

Moving up, now that they were disarmed, "Where's your captain?" He demanded whilst examining the trio of prisoners, one man and two women, his eyes easily noticing that all three of them were engineers and techs, rather than combat soldiers, which explained the lack of armour and why they surrendered.

"Dead, he was on the turret," the man spoke, gesturing to the twisted pile of metal, which had carrion charred flesh mixture, and what looked like a body of man, as the man vomited on his boots.

Shaking his armoured boot, 'Just great,' he mentally moaned as the man remained frozen in fear realizing what he had done, clearly dreading the worst.

Walking way from bound prisoners, "This operative Nex, we have taken the bridge, along with some prisoners over," he relayed back to Dancer.

"Acknowledged," Operative Red stated.

"We should have control of the ship within next couple minutes," he stated, whilst looking at his mission clock, to see it had taken just over 33 minutes to take the cruiser.

**End of Chapter**


End file.
